Omphalos (theology)
Encyclopedia
The Omphalos hypothesis was named after the title of an 1857 book, Omphalos
by Philip Henry Gosse
, in which Gosse argued that in order for the world to be "functional", God
must have created the Earth
with mountains and canyons, trees with growth rings, Adam and Eve with hair, fingernails, and navel
s (omphalos
is Greek
for "navel"), and that therefore no evidence that we can see of the presumed age of the earth
and universe
can be taken as reliable. The idea has seen some revival in the twentieth century by some modern creationists
, who have extended the argument to light that appears to originate in far-off star
s and galaxies
(although other creationists reject this explanation). Many creationists believe that Adam
and Eve
had no navels, and that the trees in the Garden of Eden
had no growth rings.
(Part I Book IV Chapter V): "God might have created, and doubtless did create, the world with all the marks of antiquity and completeness which it now exhibits."
Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb
supports a similar position, arguing further that the evidence for an old universe
is strong: "The bones, artifacts, partially decayed radium, potassium-argon, uranium, the red-shifted light from space, etc.– all of it points to a greater age which nevertheless is not true."
. This idea is sometimes called "Last Thursdayism" by its opponents, as in "the world might as well have been created last Thursday."
The concept is both unverifiable and unfalsifiable
through any conceivable scientific method—in other words, it is impossible even in principle to subject it to any form of test by reference to any empirical data because the empirical data themselves are considered to have been arbitrarily created to look the way they do at every observable level of detail.
mountains that were never really volcanoes in the first place and that never actually experienced erosion. Some theologians feel it is not consistent with most benevolent theistic theologies that God would create appearances that are so completely deceiving to every level of detail.
This conception has therefore drawn harsh rebuke from some theologians. Reverend Canon Brian Hebblethwaite, for example, preached against Bertrand Russell's
discussion of an idea related to Gosse's concept:
The basis for Hebblethwaite's objection, however, is the presumption of a God that would not deceive us about our very humanity - an unprovable presumption that the Omphalos hypothesis rejects at the outset. Hebblethwaite also suggests that God necessarily had to create certain elements of the Universe in combination with the creation of man:
In a rebuttal of the claim that God might have implanted a false history of the age of the Universe in order to test our faith in the truth of the Torah, Rabbi Natan Slifkin
, an author whose works have been banned by several Haredi rabbis for going against the tenets of the Talmud
, writes:
Gosse, however, did not assert that God deceived us, only that any act of creation of human, animal or plant would "at the instant of its creation present indubitable evidences of a previous history" in far more subtle, microscopic and unavoidable ways than the presence or absence of hair or navels. He presented it not as an hypothesis but as a law or logical necessity: any created organism must be "from the first marked with the records of a previous being". The alternative, he argued, would be a created earth in which trees (larger than saplings) would exhibit no seasonal growth rings.
It developed on talk.origins into a satiric parody religion
with a catechism
; other postings started the "heretical
" splinter groups Last Wednesdayism and Last Fridayism. Another version, claiming not to be a parody, incorporates ideas from solipsism
.
Jorge Luis Borges
, in his 1940 work, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
, describes a fictional world in which some essentially follow as a religious belief a philosophy much like Russell's discussion on the logical extreme
of Gosse's theory :
Borges had earlier written a short essay, "The Creation and P. H. Gosse" that explored the rejection of Gosse's Omphalos. Borges argued that its unpopularity stemmed from Gosse's explicit (if inadvertent) outlining of what Borges characterized as absurdities in the Genesis story.
Omphalos (book)
Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot is a book by Philip Gosse, written in 1857 , in which he argues that the fossil record is not evidence of evolution, but rather that it is an act of creation inevitably made so that the world would appear to be older than it is...
by Philip Henry Gosse
Philip Henry Gosse
Philip Henry Gosse was an English naturalist and popularizer of natural science, virtually the inventor of the seawater aquarium, and a painstaking innovator in the study of marine biology...
, in which Gosse argued that in order for the world to be "functional", God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
must have created the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
with mountains and canyons, trees with growth rings, Adam and Eve with hair, fingernails, and navel
Navel
The navel is a scar on the abdomen caused when the umbilical cord is removed from a newborn baby...
s (omphalos
Omphalos
An omphalos is an ancient religious stone artifact, or baetylus. In Greek, the word omphalos means "navel" . According to the ancient Greeks, Zeus sent out two eagles to fly across the world to meet at its center, the "navel" of the world...
is Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
for "navel"), and that therefore no evidence that we can see of the presumed age of the earth
Age of the Earth
The age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples...
and universe
Age of the universe
The age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang posited by the most widely accepted scientific model of cosmology. The best current estimate of the age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model...
can be taken as reliable. The idea has seen some revival in the twentieth century by some modern creationists
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
, who have extended the argument to light that appears to originate in far-off star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s and galaxies
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
(although other creationists reject this explanation). Many creationists believe that Adam
Adam
Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...
and Eve
Eve (Bible)
Eve was, according to the creation of Abrahamic religions, the first woman created by God...
had no navels, and that the trees in the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
had no growth rings.
Support
Chateaubriand wrote in his 1802 book, Génie du christianismeGénie du christianisme
Génie du christianisme is a work by the French author François-René de Chateaubriand, written during his exile in England in the 1790s as a defence of the Catholic Christian religion, then under attack during the French Revolution...
(Part I Book IV Chapter V): "God might have created, and doubtless did create, the world with all the marks of antiquity and completeness which it now exhibits."
Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb
Dovid Gottlieb
Dovid Gottlieb is a senior faculty member at Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem. An author and lecturer, Gottlieb received his Ph.D. in mathematical logic at Brandeis University and later become Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. A student of Jean Van Heijenoort, he received a doctorate in...
supports a similar position, arguing further that the evidence for an old universe
Age of the universe
The age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang posited by the most widely accepted scientific model of cosmology. The best current estimate of the age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model...
is strong: "The bones, artifacts, partially decayed radium, potassium-argon, uranium, the red-shifted light from space, etc.– all of it points to a greater age which nevertheless is not true."
When did false history begin?
Though Gosse's original Omphalos hypothesis specifies a popular creation story, others have proposed that the idea does not preclude creation as recently as five minutes ago, including memories of times before this created in situIn situ
In situ is a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position'. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may...
. This idea is sometimes called "Last Thursdayism" by its opponents, as in "the world might as well have been created last Thursday."
The concept is both unverifiable and unfalsifiable
Falsifiability
Falsifiability or refutability of an assertion, hypothesis or theory is the logical possibility that it can be contradicted by an observation or the outcome of a physical experiment...
through any conceivable scientific method—in other words, it is impossible even in principle to subject it to any form of test by reference to any empirical data because the empirical data themselves are considered to have been arbitrarily created to look the way they do at every observable level of detail.
A deceptive creator
From a religious viewpoint, it can be interpreted as God having 'created a fake,' such as illusions of light in space of stellar explosions (supernovae) that never really happened, or volcanicVolcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
mountains that were never really volcanoes in the first place and that never actually experienced erosion. Some theologians feel it is not consistent with most benevolent theistic theologies that God would create appearances that are so completely deceiving to every level of detail.
This conception has therefore drawn harsh rebuke from some theologians. Reverend Canon Brian Hebblethwaite, for example, preached against Bertrand Russell's
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
discussion of an idea related to Gosse's concept:
The basis for Hebblethwaite's objection, however, is the presumption of a God that would not deceive us about our very humanity - an unprovable presumption that the Omphalos hypothesis rejects at the outset. Hebblethwaite also suggests that God necessarily had to create certain elements of the Universe in combination with the creation of man:
In a rebuttal of the claim that God might have implanted a false history of the age of the Universe in order to test our faith in the truth of the Torah, Rabbi Natan Slifkin
Natan Slifkin
Natan Slifkin , also popularly known as the "Zoo Rabbi", is an ordained but non-pulpit serving Orthodox rabbi best known for his interest in zoology, science and for his books on these topics, which are controversial in the Haredi world.-Biography:Natan Slifkin was born and raised in Manchester,...
, an author whose works have been banned by several Haredi rabbis for going against the tenets of the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, writes:
Gosse, however, did not assert that God deceived us, only that any act of creation of human, animal or plant would "at the instant of its creation present indubitable evidences of a previous history" in far more subtle, microscopic and unavoidable ways than the presence or absence of hair or navels. He presented it not as an hypothesis but as a law or logical necessity: any created organism must be "from the first marked with the records of a previous being". The alternative, he argued, would be a created earth in which trees (larger than saplings) would exhibit no seasonal growth rings.
A consistent creator
Some Jewish commentaries on the age of the Universe delve into the Omphalos hypothesis. In particular, Slifkin writes:Other formulations
Last Thursdayism is a response to omphalism which posits that, by the same logic, the world might have been created last Thursday (or by implication, on any other given date and time), but with the appearance of age: people's memories, history books, fossils, light already on the way from distant stars, and so forth. It is aimed at the logic point that when this logic is permitted, it can be used to prove any "fixed date creation" schema. The first known reference is on November 2, 1992, in a post titled "Last Thursdayism proven!", responding to an apocalyptic prediction:It developed on talk.origins into a satiric parody religion
Parody religion
A parody religion or mock religion is a parody of a religion, sect or cult. A parody religion can be a parody of several religions, sects, gurus and cults at the same time. Or, it can be a parody of no particular religion, instead parodying the concept of religious belief...
with a catechism
Catechism
A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
; other postings started the "heretical
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
" splinter groups Last Wednesdayism and Last Fridayism. Another version, claiming not to be a parody, incorporates ideas from solipsism
Solipsism
Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus and ipse . Solipsism as an epistemological position holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not...
.
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, in his 1940 work, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a short story by the 20th century Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The story was first published in the Argentine journal Sur, May 1940. The "postscript" dated 1947 is intended to be anachronistic, set seven years in the future...
, describes a fictional world in which some essentially follow as a religious belief a philosophy much like Russell's discussion on the logical extreme
Logical extreme
A logical extreme is a logical construct that is often useful in testing hypotheses. The use of a logical extreme is often the simplest way to disprove a hypothesis. Quite simply, a logical extreme is the statement of an extreme or even preposterous position that is nonetheless consistent with the...
of Gosse's theory :
Borges had earlier written a short essay, "The Creation and P. H. Gosse" that explored the rejection of Gosse's Omphalos. Borges argued that its unpopularity stemmed from Gosse's explicit (if inadvertent) outlining of what Borges characterized as absurdities in the Genesis story.
See also
- Age of the universeAge of the universeThe age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang posited by the most widely accepted scientific model of cosmology. The best current estimate of the age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model...
- AntediluvianAntediluvianThe antediluvian period meaning "before the deluge" is the period referred to in the Bible between the Creation of the Earth and the Deluge . The narrative takes up chapters 1-6 of Genesis...
- A Clockwork OriginA Clockwork Origin"A Clockwork Origin" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of the animated sitcom, Futurama. It aired on Comedy Central on August 12, 2010. In the episode, Professor Farnsworth leaves Earth after being frustrated by anti-evolutionists' belief in "Creaturism", a form of Creationism...
- Conflict thesisConflict thesisThe conflict thesis proposes an intrinsic intellectual conflict between religion and science. The original historical usage of the term denoted that the historical record indicates religion’s perpetual opposition to science. Later uses of the term denote religion’s epistemological opposition to...
- History of the worldHistory of the worldThe history of the world or human history is the history of humanity from the earliest times to the present, in all places on Earth, beginning with the Paleolithic Era. It excludes non-human natural history and geological history, except insofar as the natural world substantially affects human lives...
- Jewish mythologyJewish mythologyJewish mythology is generally the sacred and traditional narratives that help explain and symbolize the Jewish religion, whereas Jewish folklore consists of the folk tales and legends that existed in the general Jewish culture. There is very little early folklore distinct from the aggadah literature...
- OmphalosOmphalos (book)Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot is a book by Philip Gosse, written in 1857 , in which he argues that the fossil record is not evidence of evolution, but rather that it is an act of creation inevitably made so that the world would appear to be older than it is...
(book) - Simulated RealitySimulated realitySimulated reality is the proposition that reality could be simulated—perhaps by computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation....
- Sons of NoahSons of NoahThe Seventy Nations or Sons of Noah is an extensive list of descendants of Noah appearing in of the Hebrew Bible, representing an ethnology from an Iron Age Levantine perspective...
- StrataStrata (novel)Strata is a comic science fiction novel by Terry Pratchett. Published in 1981, it is one of Pratchett's first novels and one of only two purely science fiction novels he has written, the other being The Dark Side of the Sun....
, a novel by Terry Pratchett which explores this concept on several levels
External links
- Ron Roizen, "The rejection of Omphalos: a note on shifts in the intellectual hierarchy of mid-nineteenth century Britain," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 21:365-369, 1982.
- Mirror of the defunct "The Church Of Last Thursdayism" webpage (stored at www.archive.org)
- Archived Usenet Post containing the FAQ of "The Church of Last Thursdayism" (stored by Google.com)
- "The Church of Last Thursday" home